Trump Condemns Push to Force Recounts in 3 States

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WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump is slamming the push to force recounts in three states pivotal to his Nov. 8 victory.

Trump calls the developing recount effort “a scam.”

He says, “The people have spoken and the election is over.”

Until now, Trump had ignored Green Party nominee Jill Stein’s fight to revisit vote totals in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. But Democratic rival Hillary Clinton forced his hand on Saturday by formally joining the effort.

Clinton campaign attorney Marc Elias says they had not planned to exercise this option because they had not uncovered any “actionable evidence of hacking or outside attempts to alter the voting technology. ” But he says now that a recount has been initiated in Wisconsin, they intend to participate “in order to ensure the process proceeds in a manner that is fair to all sides.”

Elias says Clinton will take the same approach in Pennsylvania and Michigan if Stein follows through with recount requests those states, even though that’s highly unlikely to change the election outcome.

Stein, who drew 1 percent of the vote nationally, is raising millions of dollars to fund the recounts.